"The theme of this year’s gathering of business leaders and policymakers in Davos is the introduction of new technology. The WEF organisers have already predicted that 7 million jobs could go in five years, with women losing out the most. (...) Many labour-­intensive firms should be able to boost profit margins as they substitute costly workers for cheaper robots or intelligent software. (...) Workers already displaced by automation, such as those on assembly lines, could also feel the impact of the latest technology, as robots which are able to move around – so-called cobots – are able to perform more intricate tasks. 'The greatest disruption, however, could be experienced by workers who have so far felt immune to robotic competition, namely those in middle­-skill professions', the report says. It points to clerical work, such as customer service, being replaced by artificial intelligence. Insurance claims could also be settled without human intervention" (aqui - sequência daqui)

A começar pela própria "The River" (“I come from down in the valley, where, mister, when you're young they bring you up to do like your daddy done”) em que as personagens não poderiam ser mais reais: a irmã, Virginia e o cunhado, Mike, protagonistas de uma história de “tempos de recessão, tempos difíceis na América” (”I got a job working construction for the Johnstown Company but lately there ain't been much work on account of the economy”), cenário de maldição e ameaça (“Now those memories come back to haunt me, they haunt me like a curse, is a dream a lie if it don't come true or is it something worse?”).
Na realidade, houve um primeiro album simples gravado, em 1979, no estúdio Power Station, de Nova Iorque, e nos Telegraph Hill Studios – de facto, um celeiro reconvertido numa quinta de Springsteen, na Telegraph Hill Road, em Holmdel, New Jersey –, The Ties That Bind, que acabaria por nunca ser publicado mas de cujo total de 10 canções, 7 haveriam de ser incluídas em The River, finalmente editado em Outubro de 1980.